PACT America Redefined - Podcast Transcript

November 2005

The following transcript is for the podcast entitled “PACT America Redefined.”

Welcome to the PACT America podcast.

I don't feel like I did a good job with my last podcast.

There were a lot of facts and figures, and it was starting to get real boring, real quick. You know you've got problems when a ladybug can fall asleep on the microphone stand while you're giving a speech. You know, there was a lot of reading, and it was kind of awkward.

Some things are better read, and some things are better said.

If you want to read something, you can go to my website and find something to read. But I'm just going to try to keep it real here and just talk.

I quit my job yesterday.

I was working as a welder for Caterpillar. They make that heavy construction equipment that's painted yellow; you've probably seen it. I was working as a welder on the night shift building engine frames for wheel loaders.

To be honest, I hated that job. The pay wasn't that great, and it's a constant struggle to keep the bills paid. And the job itself, it's the same thing over and over and over again. I don't know, this summer was bad but... you gotta to do what you gotta do, you know?

I was working a lot of overtime, sweating it out with a welding jacket and jeans in the summer heat, trying to make some overtime so I could pay for this project. And that was fine, but now the overtime's kind of dried up, and the job just is boring after awhile. It's starting to get to me.

And one of the things I'd like to say is I mean even... I don't know, let's talk about like how this relates to my Social Security thing.

When I hired in there, they had just approved a new contract, and now all the new hires were getting paid half as much as the people who had been there for many years. And I don't have a problem with making less than guys who have more experience than I; I mean that's just the way it is.

But they changed it so that we'd never be able to catch up or we'd never be able to make that much, and some of the guys, some of the oldtimers that have been there 20 years, tell me that they were making more 20 years ago than I'm making right now.

And it comes at a time when the corporation is making record profits. So I just can't understand how there's such a complete disconnect between the success of the workers and the success of the company.

And they took away the pension for new hires. Now they have 401(k) accounts, but I don't even make enough to afford to contribute to a 401(k) account.

They gave us a small raise last month, and the first thing I thought to myself was, “Gee, now I can afford to eat three meals a day.” So and I'm supposed to be socking money away into a 401(k) account?

And what's that going to do? I'm going to be investing in the stock market. Why should I give my money to Wall Street, when Wall Street is doing everything it can to export my job?

Why do I want to support that system? I don't want to have anything to do with that, because it's what's hurting guys like me and taking away our jobs. I don't want to finance that.

But then there's still this other problem. So corporations are going away from pensions because they're expensive to maintain, and they're going into these 401(k) accounts. Well if I contribute to this 401(k), the company will match my contribution. So right there it's like an immediate 100% return. But what I'm trying to say is that if you don't make enough to be able to afford to contribute to these plans, the fact that they'll match your contribution doesn't do you any good.

And I, I don't know. I think you get the point.

But no, let's talk about something else for a second. Even though the company will match your contribution, you have to work there three years before you'll become vested in the program. That means that if you quit before that period, you lose all of those extra contributions.

So it's like, nobody even works there that long anymore. Most guys that work there, or most guys that hired in on the new contract work there for a few months, maybe six months, and then quit.

I worked in the training lab for my first two months there; I was an assistant helping out. And most of the guys that were coming in, all the new guys were telling me that they were looking for new jobs already. So you know you have a problem when your new employees are looking for a job from the first day that they start.

And yeah, there's great medical benefits and health benefits, but... (cough)

Excuse me, I've got this cough. And I'm not sure whether it's from welding fumes or just because I'm sick. I think, I don't know. Probably both. One's making the other worse.

But anyway, what I was trying to say is like, well they told us that we're three times more likely to get carpal tunnel doing this job than being a data processor or a word... What do they call those people? (pause)

Data entry person on a computer. So we're three times more likely to get carpal tunnel. My Dad had carpal tunnel, and I don't know, in the past month or so... I mean recently it's just like my wrists are like having this weird tingling pain in them.

And I was like, “You know what? I don't even want to work here anymore.” So I just quit.

I went to the doctor on Thursday and he said that it might be starting carpal tunnel, and I don't know, I just don't want it to get any worse. This job isn't worth it.

(sigh)

So I mean 401(k)'s are not the answer. And pensions... pensions, I mean partly they're good, but the problem with pensions is there's two problems. One is that corporations aren't putting enough money into them as they should be, so when these corporations are going bankrupt, they're dumping massive, massive pension losses on the government.

But the other problem is that nobody works for the same company for 20 or 30 years anymore. You know, so it's... these pensions, you're not going to work for a company long enough to qualify for its pension.

So what I was trying to do with this plan of mine is say, “Hey, let's create a pension plan that's kind of like a cross between a pension and a 401(k), where you would own your own pension plan, so if the company went bankrupt, it wouldn't hurt you because it would all be stuff that you owned.”

The company would contribute into your account, and it wouldn't matter how much you put into it; they would have to contribute a fixed amount no matter what. And you wouldn't have to wait around for a vesting period or anything else like that. (cough)

And these, these bonds in your account, I mean they would be invested not in the stock market, not in corporations who are doing everything they can to take away your job and to just cut your pay, but they would be invested in the country.

Because with this country, we have a national debt, and that's a bad thing. It's not a good thing; it's a bad thing. But this national debt is costing us a lot of money in interest payments.

In 2004, we paid over $320 billion just to cover the interest on the debt. I did some calculations, and I figured out that we pay about 28% of our taxes, our tax money, goes just to cover the interest on the debt. That's crazy!

And we're not getting anything out of it. This money is just going straight to the rich, so it's redistributing the wealth in our country from the poor and the middle class to the rich. And it's wrong, because it's also going to foreign governments.

I don't want my money going to communist countries and other countries. (groan)

It's bad enough that we have to buy everything from the store... You can't even buy stuff made in America anymore. That's bad enough. But then those countries are going to take those profits and start buying up our country? I don't think so! I'm not going to let that happen.

So what I'm saying is, “Let's not have these accounts. Let's not have these retirement accounts invested in the stock market, because their greed is ruining this country. Let's invest in the country! Let's get things under control; let's get these things back on track, you know?”

You know, I'm not the most qualified person to create a plan like this. I'm not a professional economist, or a businessperson, or whatever. I don't have... I don't even have a college degree. I don't even have an associate's degree, so let alone I don't have any PhD in economics.

But while I may not have fancy degrees or political connections, I have heart. You know, I'm a citizen, and that means something. So I'm not just going to stand by and watch all these supposedly smart people throw this whole country away; I'm going to stand up and do what I think is right. And that's what I did with this thing.

I mean, it hasn't been easy. This sucks! Excuse my language.

I spend every day working on this plan; I barely see any of my friends anymore. I work as many hours as I can get just to pay for all these projects and advertising and websites and all this other stuff, and it's... (sigh/groan)

I just want to be done with it. It's such a burden. I want to move on with my life, but these members of Congress keep ignoring me. Nobody wants to listen. Even the media doesn't want to listen; they don't take me seriously.

But I'm just going to hold the line, you know? I'm going to keep at this until it happens, because it has to happen! We have to get this stuff under control, because it's taking the whole country down with it.

And that's what I'm going to do. (pause)

Because some things are worth fighting for.

This is Adam Florzak keeping it real.